Apple is reportedly getting set to release a dedicated Apple journaling app. Here’s what the app could be like and how it may work.
The benefits of journaling have long been documented by scientists. Journaling has been shown to help with depression and mental health, and it may even have physical benefits for the body.
It’s no surprise then that journaling apps are some of the most popular in the iPhone App Store. But now a new report from the Wall Street Journal suggests Apple is about to debut its own journaling app. Here’s what you need to know…
Apple Journaling App: What Is It?
The Wall Street Journal first broke the news of the Apple journaling app. The WSJ says the app is codenamed “Jurassic”, although that is highly unlikely to be anything close to the actual name of the app when it launches.
Apple’s journaling app will reportedly be far more advanced than some basic journaling apps, which are essentially just basically digital diary apps. Of course, there is nothing wrong with such apps – sometimes the simplest are the best, especially when it comes to journaling.
But Apple’s journaling app will reportedly be “smart”. Here’s how the Wall Street Journal describes it:
“The Apple journaling app, code-named Jurassic, is designed to help users keep track of their daily lives, according to the documents describing the software. The app will analyze the users’ behavior to determine what a typical day is like, including how much time is spent at home compared with elsewhere, and whether a certain day included something outside the norm, according to the documents.”
Wall Street Journal
The WSJ goes on to report that the app will give users suggestions for what to write about, given the app’s monitoring of their day. The app will also reportedly be able to monitor who the user is around and if they are a friend or work colleague.
Apple Journaling App: What About Privacy?
Given the Wall Street Journal’s description of the app, privacy concerns immediately come up. However, the app is reported to have robust privacy protections.
For starters, the app is expected to do all of its analysis of a user’s day on the user’s device itself. On-device software intelligence is something Apple frequently offers in order to keep a user’s data as private as possible.
This means that Apple won’t actually have access to the analysis of the user’s day or who they interact with because the journaling app won’t send this data to Apple’s servers to be processed. Rather, this data will be processed on the iPhone itself.
And any journaling data saved in a user’s iCloud account is likely to be end-to-end encrypted by default or by the user activating Advanced Data Protection.
Apple Journaling App: Cost
The Wall Street Journal didn’t detail what the Apple journaling app may cost. It will likely be a free app, however. Of course, it’s also likely Apple could also a free version of the app alongside some kind of “Jounaling+” subscription, much like Apple offers a free Apple News app, but you can also subscribe to Apple News+ to get more content and features.
This kind of monetization would make sense given Apple’s increased focus on services in recent years. If the new journaling app were also bundled with an Apple One subscription, it would make such a subscription more appealing to users.
Apple Journaling App: Release Date & Requirements
The WSJ gave no firm release date for the Apple journaling app. However, it’s possible the app could be included in iOS 17, which will be previewed at WWDC23 in June. If that’s the case, the journaling app could make its debut to the public later this year when iOS 17 ships.
If the journaling app is part of iOS 17, it will likely run on all iPhones that can run iOS 17.
